Rejoicing Spirits
by lexieconextreme
Summary: PART THREE, AFTER RETURNING SPIRIT! Chihiro meets her old friends from the Spirit World.


**A/N: Hello everyone who's reading this next part! If you haven't read the first two parts, I suggest you do so. It might make a bit more sense if you do that.**

 ***That one cop dude from spn* - "Look at you. Trying to get more people to hit up your other stories. You think you're so cute, don't you?"**

 ***Le me* - "I think I'm adorable! And yes. That's exactly what I'm doing."**

 **Shameless self-promoting is shameless**

 **Enjoy the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away or any of the characters within. If I was Hayao Miyazaki, we'd know what kind of love was between Chihiro and Haku, dammit.**

* * *

Chihiro and Ling raced up the streets of the small village devoted to restaurants making food for the spirits. Before crossing the river, Chihiro had reminded him that eating that food might get them turned into pigs, and Ling had agreed not to eat any food unless invited.

Chihiro slowed down when the bathhouse came into sight, and Ling came to almost a complete stop behind her. "Why aren't we running any more exactly?" He asked, a little confused. "I thought you wanted to see your friends."

Chihirio shrugged, and she led the way across the bridge she'd last crossed two years ago with Haku when Yubaba finally let her leave the Spirit World

Walking up to the bathhouse, Chihiro could see that the outside had been repaired from the time she'd accidentally let No-Face in. As well as destroying most of the inside of the place and covering Yubaba in vomit, No-Face had also inflicted quite a bit of damage on the outside as well, though Chihiro wasn't quite sure how or why.

She could hear the clamor inside as everyone prepared for the influx of new guests that arrived each night, always cleaning baths and floors, cooking food and getting things done in general.

Chihiro laughed at herself every time she thought of how useless she'd been when she first arrived, unable to do even the simplest of work. Ever since she'd got back from the Spirit World, however, her parents had been surprised. Chihiro had started helping out around the house instead sitting around and doing nothing like she used to do. Well, she didn't do nothing, but that was what complaining basically equated to.

Chihiro paused when she came to the door. She could hear the chattering within, and suddenly she didn't want to go inside. Ling paused beside her, looking at her strangely. "Are you going to go in?" He asked. Chihiro gave him a grin. "Yes! But not this way!"

Chihiro turned to the right, walking into the little flower garden off to the side of the bathhouse. Ling followed her, confused. "What's this way?"

Chihiro turned back to him with a smile, walking backwards towards the long, wooden staircase that clung to the side of the bathhouse. "The boiler room."

Ling slowly followed her train of thought, thinking back to Chihiro's story. "The boiler room...Kamajjii?"

"Yep!" Chihiro turned back around to watch where she was going so she didn't accidentally fall of the edge she'd been afraid of the first time she was here. Walking back down the stairs, she wondered how she'd ever been afraid. Ling was a bit more hesitant, but he trusted that his friend knew what she was doing.

"Hey, Chihiro?"

"Yeah Ling?"

"Didn't one of the stairs break the first time you climbed down them?"

"Oh, yeah. But I'm sure they've fixed that by now." Funnily enough, Ling remained unassured, and tested every step before he took it. Soon enough, they reached the bottom. Chihiro went straight toward the door that led to the boiler room, eager to see Kamajjii and the soot balls(?) again. It was weird, being eager to see balls of soot again, Chihiro decided. But they were friends, so why not?

Chihiro all but bounced into the next room, stepping carefully down the large ste before shouting "KAMAJJII!" With the largest smile on her face.

It made sense, Ling mused, watching her greet her strange six-armed friend. This was the first place she came after coming to the bathhouse, the second friend she'd made. Of course this would be the first place she'd come after being gone for two years.

The boiler man turned quickly at the young girl's voice, staring in great surprise at the happy child that stood beside his work station. "Chihiro!" The old man cried, and Ling immediately liked him. He had a deep, scratchy voice, and the man seemed quite likeable despite the initial illusion of gruffness.

"When did you get back?!" The man climbed down from his work station using the bottom four arms, while the top two were used to hug Chihiro. Chihiro hugged Kamajjii back quite willingly, smiling the entire time. Ling was amused that Kamajjii actually seemed like a grandfather to his friend, and that that was the guise Kamajjii had used to excuse Chihiro to Rin when she had discovered the girl was human.

"Not long ago! Me and Ling just got here!" It was then that Kamajjii noticed the young boy standing behind Chihiro nervously. Ling stepped the down the unnecessarily large step and waved to Kamajjii, and Chihiro giggled. "I've never seen him speechless before," she laughed in Kamajjii's ear. The old man extended was of his unnaturally long arms to shake Ling's hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kamajjii, slave to the boiler that heats the bathhouse."

At Chihiro's smirk, Ling remembered that that was the line Kamajjii had used when originally introducing himself to Chihiro. "And I'm Ling Yao, one of Chihiro's best friends."

Kamajjii's bushy eyebrows went up laughingly. "I think you'll find you have a lot of competition for that title here, young man." Ling grinned at that, then started laughing when Chihiro turned pink. "I'll win," Ling said jokingly.

"Hmmm, I wouldn't be so sure about that. You haven't met Rin or Haku, or even Yubaba's son yet."

Ling thought this over for a moment. "I'll still win," he said firmly, and Chihiro grinned. "You're all my best friends, so it doesn't really matter in the end."

Ling was about to reply when the sliding door on the other end of the room opened. A young woman entered, and one of Kamajjii's many arms reached back and banged a wooden gavel on the side of the metal wheel. "MEAL TIME, TAKE A BREAK!"

All of the tiny sootballs that had been gathering around Chihiro's feet left off immediately, zooming to the side of the step, waiting for who Ling assumed had to be Rin to feed them their Skittles.

Rin had already dipped a hand into the basket and started feeding the small balls of soot when she noticed Chihiro and Ling standing next to Kamajjii.

Her eyes widened for a moment before Rin dumped the entire basket into the excited balls of soot and walked quickly over to where Chihiro stood. "You big dope!" She said, laughing. "I thought you were never coming back!" Rin stood back, staring her friend in the eyes. "How you been?"

If it was even possible, Chihiro's grin got even bigger. "I've been okay! After I started school again, I met Ling and his sister, Ran Fan! They've been good friends."

Rin looked over at Ling and smiled, and Ling looked away, hoping against hope he wasn't blushing. Rin was kinda pretty. "I'm Rin!" She said, holding out her hand.

"Ling," he said, trying to keep his voice even. Rin gave him another smile, then went back to her tray to get Kamajjii his lunch. She sighed when one of Kamajjii's arms went back to retrieve his bowl from the day before. "Two years, Kamajjii. Two years. I've officially been telling you for two years to set your bowl out."

Chihiro shook her head, smiling, and sat on the large step to pull of her shoes and socks. She set them inside the large bowl the step effectively created, and the animated soot balls immediately came over and took them inside the little holes in the wall that Ling guessed went to where the coal was stored.

Rin noticed. "You coming up top with me?"

Chihiro nodded eagerly. "This is the first place I came, so I haven't seen anyone else yet." Then she looked over to Ling. "You can leave your socks and shoes here too. The soot will take care of them." Chihiro winked at them, and Ling could have sweared that they giggled. Ling immediately bent to take them off, and Chihiro and Rin chatted while they waited for him to finish. He set them inside the bowl, and the little pieces of soot came out to take his shoes too. He smiled at that, then nodded to Chihiro.

They all went out the door, calling goodbye to Kamajjii on their way out.

* * *

 **A/N: Aw, poor Ling. I seem to be accidentally turning him into a sort of third wheel. I didn't mean to, I swear.**

* * *

They all rode up to the elevator, though to where, Ling wasn't sure. Rin said they were going to where she thought Haku might be, since she knew that was who Chihiro would want to see the most.

Ling himself wanted to meet this Haku. The spirit Chihiro seemed to love to talk about the most, the one she seemed to miss the most. The one who had saved her from drowning when she was just a little girl.

The elevator came to a stop, and the wooden doors slid open slowly, and Rin stepped out of it importantly. Ling almost laughed, but he didn't. He figured she just couldn't wait to start shouting that Chihiro was back.

But as it turned out, it wasn't needed. Everyone could _smell_ Chihiro and Ling, as weird as it was. As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, Rin said their smell was already wafting all over the place. The creatures all looked up, one by one. They stared at Chihiro for a moment before pandemonium broke out. They all rushed up stairs and across indoor bridges, trying to reach Chihiro and talk to her excitedly.

Ling was surprised, though he didn't know why he was. At the end of her story, every single one of these people were happy that Chihiro had gotten her parents home safe, happy that her contract had been torn up. They all loved her, and Ling was glad to see it. For someone who had clearly missed this place so much, being loved by all these people was surely a great joy.

After a while, the crowd started to thin as Chihiro reminded them they still had jobs to do, spirits to welcome that very night. Unhappily, they all went back to doing what they had been doing before. Rin smiled and led Chihiro and Ling through the building and pointed outside to one of the balconies. There stood a young man with neck length dark hair, back facing the door.

As soon as she saw him, Chihiro gave a great cry and and all but sprang outside. Surprised, the young man turned to face them, and Ling got a look of his face. He was handsome, and Ling thought he finally understood what people meant when they said someone had an ageless, timeless face. The man who must have been Haku had one of those faces. And at the moment, it was filled with surprised happiness as the younger girl hugged him tightly.

Ling and Rin stayed back, waiting. Finally, Chihiro stood back, and Haku held her hands. They both had the happiest of smiles on their faces, and Ling was glad he and Rin had stayed back. He didn't want to interrupt this moment for anything.

* * *

 **A/N: And...All of my tales have been told. The story is now over. If there are any more Spirited Away fics, they will most likely be unrelated.**

 **Thank you for reading, and I hope you all liked it!**

 **Have a wonderful day!**

 **BYE ;3**


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